Asset Protection
by TheSilverHunt3r
Summary: Dazai didn't know what, exactly, but something had happened to Chuuya. And he really doubted that it was something good. Dad!Mori, oneshot.


Summary: Dazai didn't know what, exactly, but something had happened to Chuuya. And he really doubted that it was something good. Dad!Mori, oneshot.

Dazai toed off his shoes. The bottoms were still wet. Today had been messy-he had been stuck interrogating some stubborn prisoners. Since his partner would have strangled him for leaving red on the white tiles of their apartment, he had cleaned off the soles of his shoes. He put his shoes next to Chuuya's.

It was one of Chuuya's rare days off. Otherwise, Chuuya would be out on a mission. Actually, he should have still be out drinking. But Chuuya's car was parked outside, so Dazai guessed his partner just got back early.

"Chuuya?" Dazai sang as he walked into the living room.

There was no reply.

"Chuuya?" Dazai checked the kitchen.

No reply.

Dazai went down the hallway. The first door on the right was his, the door on the left was the bathroom, and the second door on the left was Chuuya's. He knocked on Chuuya's door.

No reply.

He texted his partner's phone. He heard a chime from inside Chuuya's bedroom-it sounded like a phone. He opened the door.

Chuuya wasn't inside his room.

Dazai wandered over to the desk. There was Chuuya's phone-the screen still lit up from Dazai's text-and wallet.

Dazai's smile fell.

Chuuya's car was still here. Chuuya's shoes were still here. Chuuya's phone and wallet were still here.

Dazai didn't know what, exactly, but something had happened to Chuuya. And he really doubted that it was something good.

XXX

The doctor looked rather unassuming. He had a scruffy salt and pepper beard and a sallow face. Despite his age, he was not wiry nor was he hunched over. Anyone who saw him would very well believe that he had been a military doctor.

He inserted the IV into a vein of his newest subject. It was just to keep the boy sedated, not to hurt him. He added an IV to the other side to provide nutrients and water as well.

The doctor sat down at his desk. He opened up a notebook full of scrawlings and indecipherable sketches. He pulled out a pen from behind his ear and uncapped it. "What shall I do first?"

XXX

The wind whipped the windows of Mori's office. The rebellious breeze flung the rain against the glass, pelting the window with droplets in a raucous chorus.

"Dazai-kun?" Mori asked, pausing. He looked up from the pile of paperwork on his desk. His hand was cramping up.

"I can't find Chuuya. Something happened to him," Dazai bluntly said. He drew his coat closer to him, defending against the draft in the office.

Mori put down his pen. "What happened?"

"I noticed it when Chuuya wasn't home. I checked all of the usual places, I found nothing. He seems to have just vanished, leaving his car, shoes, wallet, and phone at our apartment." As a testament to Dazai's claim of a search, his clothes were drenched and shoes were caked in mud.

Mori scrutinized the state of his protege-it looked legitimate, but he had to check. Yes, Dazai seemed to be telling the truth. "Are you sure?"

"I am," Dazai asserted. His eyes were chips of flint.

"I'll have Kouyou look into it," Mori assured. He shifted the stack of papers on his desk into something more organized. He made his order sound like advice, but it was was an order, "Dazai-kun, go home, get changed, and sleep."

Dazai let a frown slip onto his face, making his displeasure show. Not that it helped him much-it only made him a more pitiful sight. "Mori-san, he's my partner. I know him best. I can figure out where he was taken," he argued.

Dazai was acting childish, both of them knew it. In his state, he wouldn't be able to help as he usually could. After. . . he would likely involved.

"You haven't slept in," Mori pulled ups sleeve to check his watch, "At least forty two hours. You're suffering from severe sleep deprivation. You're soaked and shivering." He leaned forward, giving his apprentice a stern look. "Dazai-kun, do I have to baby you or can you take of yourself?"

Dazai glared back, keeping their eyes locked for several seconds. He caved first and looked away. He lowered his chin.

"Make sure to drink and eat," Mori reminded. "I don't want a repeat of last time."

'Okay, Mom,' Dazai sarcastically thought. "Yes, Boss," he murmured. He left.

Mori waited until Dazai disappeared from sight before calling Kouyou. "Hello. Dazai is rather sure that Chuuya has been kidnapped. No, I sent him back to their apartment. Yes, that is true. Apparently, all of Chuuya's things wre left there, including his phone, wallet, shoes, and car. I'm putting you in charge of the investigation. I trust that you will keep it. . . private."

The disappearance of an executive was a weakness. It would be a sign someone had fought them and won, that the Port Mafia was wounded and bleeding. And in Yokohama, every criminal was a shark.

XXX

Mori hadn't been expecting anyone else today, but the most senior member of the Port Mafia was standing in his office. "Hirotsu-san?"

"A letter just came for you, Boss," Hirotsu explained. "It was scanned but not opened-we found nothing dangerous." He put the letter in Moro's outstretched hand.

"Thank you. You may leave, Hirotsu-san," Mori dismissed.

Hirotsu bowed and left. He had many thoughts about what the letter could contain. But he knew as most in the Port Mafia knew, it was often better to shove such thoughts to the back of one's head and forget about them.

Mori combed through his desk drawers to find a steel letter opener. Hidden among the folders, scotch tape, loose papers, pens, and other miscellaneous he saw a gleam of dull silver. He pulled the letter opener out and slid it across the top of the envelope, making a neat incision in the paper.

He pulled the letter out and unfolded it.

Dear Mori-san,  
I heard you had an interesting subordinate. I had to see him for myself.  
Sincerely,  
An old friend

Mori's gaze grew unfocused. His fingers tightened, putting a wrinkle in the paper.

What could he do?

It seemed this was a personal attack, not an organizational one.

If it was. . .

Moro shook his head and put the paper down. To involve more people would be folly. He would take care of it on his own once he had a plan. But Mori would undoubtedly take care of it, take care of him if it was his old colleague. Regardless of whoever this was, someone had kidnapped one of his youngest and greatest assets, one of his newest executives. He let the dark smile slip onto his lips. He would pay him back in blood.

XXX

Fourteen hours later

Mori had taken his own advice and gone to sleep after making his way through the rest of the night's paperwork.

The guards opened the door for him and he entered his office. He halted. He had a cup of coffee in his hand, recently bought from a cafe-it sloshed agisnt the lid at the abrupt stop. "Dazai-kun, what are you doing?"

Dazai was perched on Mori's desk. His legs idly swung back and forth. In his hands was the letter. He didn't look up. "Reading."

Mori should have expected Dazai to do his own impromptu investigation and root around in his desk.

Dazai's eyes finished moving down the page. "Do you know who it is?" He looked far better than he had last night.

"I have an idea," Mori admitted.

Dazai put the letter on Mori's desk. He slid off the edge, walking over to his mentor. "I'm coming with you."

The door of the office opened again to admit Kouyou. "I don't suggest trying to go without me, either, Mori-sensei," the woman stated.

Mori smiled slightly. "Fair enough."

Dazai's attention returned to Mori. "So, Boss, who is it?"

Mori went over to a bag beside his desk, pulling out cloth. He opened it up to reveal his set of scapels. He picked one up and examined the edge. "Yamashita, an ex-military doctor," he answered. "There's been several mysterious disappearances of ability users in Yokohama over the past few months, which is why I suspect it's him."

Dazai quirked an eyebrow. "Do you know where he is?"

XXX

On the outskirts of Yokohama, hidden by the woods, sat an abandoned military bunker.

Mori, Kouyou, and Dazai drove out there. Well, Kouyou drove, because both Mori and Dazai were infamously horrible drivers.

They parked a quarter mile away and walked the rest because they did not want to tip of their enemy that they were there.

The dusty clearing held a beaten coupe and a large concrete block. Set into the concrete was a steel door with a keypad.

Dazai crossed his arms. "How are we getting in?"

Mori checked the seams of the keypad-it hadn't been tampered with. The password was supposed to be changed daily from the inside. But of course, if one had stolen the manual override code from the archives of the Special Abilities Department. . . well. Then one could take over the system from the outside if they wished. Mori smiled as he punched in the code. He decided to not mess with other features and just opened the door. Later, this place could make a good safe house for the Port Mafia. Now, however, there was an infestation to be dealt with.

Mori stepped into the tunnel and down the steps. The air was cool and musty. He knew this place. He and Yamashita had worked here-that's how he knew about the bunker in the first place. "Kouyou-kun, take the left tunnel and go until you're on the opposite side of the bunker. We will wait two minutes for you. Dazai-kun and I will take the middle tunnel," Mori ordered.

A map of the bunker would show that the tunnels looked something like a large oval with four intersecting lines in the middle. It was perfectly symmetrical.

After the wait was over, Mori started to walked into the middle tunnel. After they passed many rooms the tunnel opened out into a larger cavernous room. Just like the tunnels, the floor and walls were tiled with cold white stone.

Inside the room was a desk with a single light. Scattered around the desk were papers-a mix of loose leaf pages, messy folders, and haphazardly stapled together sheets-and books of various sizes.

The ones that were still shelved were crowded together on one shelf. All of the books were medical books. The metal bookshelves stretched around most of the room. It looked as if the books had been taken out to make room for the various instruments and jars of unknown origin.

The chair creaked as the person rose from the desk-he turned to face them. The lines on his weathered face were deepened by the bad lighting.

"Yamashita-san," Mori greeted with a smile. "Did you think I wouldn't find you?"

"Mori-san," was all the ex-military doctor got out, eyes widening. His fingers inched towards his paper strewn desk.

Elise appeared and lunged for Yamashita. In her hands was an enormous syringe.

Yamashita blocked the attack with a thick book he had pulled out from under the pile of paper. He threw the book away from him-the needle of the syringe still embedded in it. While Elise was trying to pull out her weapon, Yamashita ran towards the tunnel opposite where his enemies had entered.

The bunker was symmetrical-there were two entrances, not one.

Yamashita was scored in the side by a blade, but managed to dodge aside to save his life. He pressed his hand against his arm.

Kouyou was guarding the back entrance. Golden Demon floated above her, an ethereal wraith holding a sword.

Dazai pulled off two of the jars that seemed slightly less creepy than the others.

The first jar smashed into the side of Yamashita's head. He stumbled on a daze and luckily managed to avoid the second jar.

Yamashita froze.

Mori had his scapel to the older man's throat. "You always were known for your sick fascination, rather than your skill," he murmured as he flicked his wrist.

The three ignored the gathering pool of blood, the glass shards, and and mushy remains of whatever had been in the jars. They had seen far worse and they weren't here for Yamashita.

Mori flicked his wrist again-the blood flew off the blade of his scapel and onto the tiled floor. A few stubborn drops of red remained. He wiped them off with a black handkerchief. "Kouyou-kun, guard the front door in care we have some uninvited guests. Dazai-kun, check the right side," Mori ordered as he headed towards the left side of the bunker.

XXX

Mori methodically checked each door on the west side. He found nothing worth looking further for a while-most of the rooms were dusty from disuse and sparse when it came to furniture.

Somewhere around the twenty-fifth door was a room with something interesting. Mori hit the light switch.

It looked similar to the center room of the bunker. The bookshelves were largely lined with jars of various shapes that contained unknown things. A smaller, shallow bookshelf held bottles of medicine-everything from over the counter medication to old used bottles labeled with what seemed to be street names. On the top was a ready made kit for IV bags.

The lightbulb flickered. It came back dim, casting the room in darker shadows.

Shoved into a corner was an old wooden desk. On it were were a nitebook and small tubes. Mori switched on the desk light to see things more clearly. He picked a vial up, it held several strands of red hair.

The tubes held samples, samples taken from Chuuya. Among them was a piece of a finger nail, a short eyelash, and a qtip. The most concerning one was a square patch of skin, blood tinted what was a clear liquid in the other samples.

Mori put the vial back down, picking up the notebook instead. He sat down at the desk and opened up the book-there drawings and detailed descriptions throughout. He flipped to the where the last few written in pages were. His eyes grew cold as he read the passages.

Yamashita was lucky he was already dead.

"Mori-san! I found him!" The call echoed faintly through the halls.

XXX

Dazai wandered a bit. He found an operating room and poked around in there. It didn't look like it had been used.

He found a series of rooms in that seemed to be set up similarly to a hospital. They were all empty, except one.

Chuuya was hooked up to two different bags. He had been stripped down to his boxers. His right calf had been bandaged up.

Dazai came closer. He tilted his head slightly. One of his partner's nails was far shorter than the other's. Dazai knew how religiously Chuuya cut his nails, a byproduct of being Kouyou's apprentice. Yamashita had taken samples. They were lucky Yamashita had only taken samples.

Dazai turned around. He needed to go find Mori.

XXX

Mori frowned at the state of Chuuya. It was odd to see the boy like this, usually he was an unstoppable force. It didn't feel right-really everything in this situation didn't feel right.

He pulled out the IV needle for nutrition and hydration with practised ease. He gently covered the small wound in the crook of Chuuya's elbow with a bandaid. "Dazai-kun, unhook the bag I kept connected, we'll keep him sedated until we get back."

Dazai followed Mori's orders. He had a bored expression in his face now that Chuuya has been safely found. He held the bag up, allowing the liquid to get down the tube.

Mori took off his coat to put Chuuya in and picked the teenager up. He took a moment to visualise his ability and summoned Elise to hold the IV.

Elise was taller than usual, not a child but more the size of a teenage girl-manipulating the size of Elise was a useful skill Mori had developed over the years. She started to prattle about her recent drawings to Dazai and poked fun at Mori. But she dutifully kept the IV bag high enough for the sedative to reach Chuuya.

And off the four were to the exit. As they drew closer, they could hear things: gunfire, screams, the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and bone. . .

A hint of interest lit up Dazai's face and he skipped up to the stairs. "If you expect unexpected guests, does that make them expected?" Dazai quiered.

Mori shifted his arms to keep Chuuya from slipping out onto the floor. He would definitely be feeling this in his back tomorrow. "Hmm. I think it would, even if they are unwanted guests they would be predicted to come; therefore making them expected."

"It's over," Dazai chirped. He disappeared over the top of the bunker stairs.

Golden Demon disappeared. Kouyou's katana was coated in blood. She pulled out a red towel and cleaned the blade before sheathing it.

Dazai smiled cheerfully at Kouyou. "Nice job, Ane-san."

Kouyou turned around. "Dazai? Where's Chuuya?" She asked, her tone steeped in worry.

Mori and Elise came out of the bunker entrance. "Chuuya is fine, he's just sleeping," Mori assured. He moved closer, allowing Kouyoh to see her apprentice.

"You're keeping him sedated?" Kouyou questioned with a frown.

"Yes, for now," Mori laconically stated. "Now, I'm hoping they did not destroy your car, Kouyou-kun?"

XXX

The crook of both of Chuuya's elbows hurt-had he given blood and passed out? He felt a cool hand on his skin, lifting up his leg and something-cloth like, bandages?-slidding around his calf. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and opened his eyes. He was on a bed, his bed.

Mori was sitting beside the bed on a chair. He was part way through re-wrapping bandages around Chuuya's wound.

Kouyou was sitting closeby. She was as prim and proper as ever, but the scene was somewhat humourous considering how out of place she looked sitting on a large blue beanbag.

Dazai was sprawled out beside Chuuya, using his long black trenchcoat as a blanket. His face was buried in a pillow stolen from Chuuya's bed, having declared he was too tired to go back to his room.

Chuuya could smell it. He croaked, "Coffee." He pushed himself upright, trying to not disturb Mori's work as much as possible.

Mori chuckled and tied off the end of bandages. "Good to have you back, Chuuya-kun."

Dazai propped himself up on his elbows, craning his neck to look at Chuuya. "You drink so much coffee-that's why you're short," he sleepily said.

Chuuya shoved Dazai's head back into the stolen pillow. "Shut up."

Kouyou had shot up from her seat and over to the bed. She cupped Chuuya's cheek with a hand.

Chuuya smiled. "I'm fine, Ane-san."

Kouyou hugged Chuuya-he hugged back.

Dazai muttered into the pillow, something about unappreciative partners.

Mori ruffled Dazai's hair-his apprentice grumbled but allowed it.

"So, coffee?" Chuuya hopefully proposed after pulling away from the hug.

Kouyou gave her apprentice a look-it didn't matter to her whether he was a high ranking Port Mafia member or recently turned seventeen-Chuuya did not need caffeine right now. "Tea."

"Decaf tea," Mori agreed.

Chuuya groaned. He hated being hurt-he was never allowed to do or have anything. At least he hadn't sustained severe injuries, his recovery should be relatively swift, especially compared to his times post-Corruption.

Kouyou smiled as she left to brew a pot of tea.

Dazai raised an eyebrow at his partner. Conspiring together was the thing they did best. 'Later we sneak out from under the supervision of our mentors and go do whatever we want?'

Chuuya gave a slight nod. 'Definitely.'

Mori shot the two teenagers an unimpressed look. It was easily translated as, 'Don't think I didn't see that.'

Dazai and Chuuya replied with innocent expressions.

Mori 'I'm not buying it' smiled at them-it was the look parents had when their children lied to them rather obviously. "You're staying in bed for the rest of the day, Chuuya-kun. And Dazai-kun, you're supposed to lead a raid tonight," he cheerfully reminded, steel hidden under the words.

The teenagers groaned in unison.


End file.
